The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 1/2/17: National Treasures

Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE Raw: Jack Gallagher demanded satisfaction and slapped a dude with a glove. Also on the show, The Club ripped the head off a Dusty Rhodes teddy bear and then pinned Goldust with a distraction roll-up. This week, Goldust gets his revenge by not appearing. Emmalina has still not debuted, isn’t debuting this week, and might not actually show up until WWE Network decides to air a tournament of exclusively independently-contracted Australian Instagram models.

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Welcome to a new year. Here’s the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for January 2, 2017.

Braun declaring for the Rumble only to get made to look like a punk is damaging no matter which way you slice it. The guy talked a lot of shit and then couldn’t anticipate the most obvious reaction, causing him to gimp out of the ring? Weak Weak Weak and it serves no purpose besides ending another Raw with Roman standing tall.

I disagree. Look what it takes to take down Braun, a twin finishing move from two of the most overpowered wrestlers in history, WCW Goldberg and the only male student that actually graduated from his school of spearing, Roman Reigns.

@Amaterasu’s Son Not quite. While Roman’s spear is observed as equal in power, Goldberg’s spear is a doubleleg with his feet planted before youre lifted off the ground and get crushed. Roman’s is a leaping tackle. Minor, but technical difference. You can see the differences in the gif above.

@Amaterasu’s Son
That would be a valid argument, if they had actually shown that they NEEDED to do that to take Strowman down. If he had started beating the crap out of them and then they teamed up to take him down it would make Strowman look tough, but really what happened is they instantly murked him like he was nothing. Like everything else on Raw they didn’t show their homework, and I refuse to give them the benefit of the doubt if they’re not gonna work for it. Like I said before on the topic, if you go into a knife fight, and the other guy just shoots with a gun before you even start, that doesn’t make you look tough “because it took a gun to beat you”, it just makes you look like an idiot who got played.

Since Roman is in the title picture, he probably won’t be in the Rumble. Goldberg and Lesnar will probably fight at Mania, ruling them out. For the main event roster, that leaves Rollins, Jericho, Zayn and Strowman. As for Smackdown, I seriously doubt any of them will end up winning. But, there is also the chance of an NXT call-up winning; that man is Joe. Rollins has had too many opportunities and Jericho is on his way out. Strowman’s not ready for the main event yet and I doubt creative is willing to back Zayn. So I’m going with Samoa Joe.

Raw will be back in front this week – SD was promoted to hell and back, Raw was on a holiday. And even then the gap was still only 30,000. If Raw’s ratings fall by 30,000 this week nobody would take a second look.

-I’m a nerd for wrestlers earning career achievements, so I’ve really been hoping Jericho would take the US Title in one of these 50 attempts the last few weeks and give Reigns some extra motivation and remove doubt that he could win the Universal Title because he’s still hauling another belt around. Cena and Rusev’s rehabilitation of the US Title, which weathered multiple Del Rio/Kalisto title switches, has left it just a prop for a main event guy.
-I hadn’t thought about BRAUN! taking the US Belt, but that would be a good story and a great ending with Sami rising up to beat him.
-I hope Jack Gallagher is the fourth member of the New Day.
-I know they don’t want to devalue the RKO, but Anderson needs the Gun Stun, badly.

KO is the only one to mention what the winner of the Rumble gets, but it’s still not clearly defined. What if someone from SDL wins the rumble? Is there a trade? Does he in turn face the winner of Styles/Cena? What happens to the other show’s belt at Mania? Too many announcments of who’s in before even knowing what’s at stake. I’s confused.

I imagine it will work like it always did in the first brand extension. Whoever wins chooses which world title they go after (and if it’s the one opposite their show, they jump brands, which happened a couple times in the past). The world title not chosen has its title match determined by either events or matches on the show. Sometimes the PPV between the Rumble and ‘Mania is used to directly set that up. They may even just do a number one contenders match and build the feud from there.

That said, WWE’s been a one roster company for the last five years. I’m sure a bunch of new kids or returning fans have been brought in during that time. They could certainly stand to explain a few things.

I didn’t watch much of this show, but is WWE just glossing over that big speech Taker gave about being “back” for more than just Mania and being Smackdown 4 Lyfe or whatever from like six whole weeks ago? Why do that and then have him disappear only to show up on Raw two months later for Wrestlemania season? I know the writers have the memory of the dude from Memento, but come on.

The best part of Raw last night was definitely the With Spandex comment section. And Brandon, you should really move over to the B&W of SmackDown, it will make you a happier person. Last week during the women’s championship match there was a distraction and it did not lead to a pin fall!

Not really feeling the hyperbolic logic that suggest Braun looks bad because he took functional cheap shots from two of the WWE’s anointed gods. To me that just said “That’s what it takes to bring him down”. I don’t think anybody benefits from a WWE where strong has to equal “completely infallible.”

This is also another case of folks who get it complaining about the booking as if there’s an audience of complete rubes still out there. We really don’t need to be so protective of folks. They can take losses, or look weak and they’ll still be perfectly fine. Like Kevin Owens is an incredibly talented performer and even though he’s a bit on the margins at this point- that all changes very quickly when it needs to.

Stephanie looks like a Digevolved Super Mr. McMahon with Fabio hair. She’s always right and frustrated by all these stupid people!

I prefer to think of Stephanie as the Africanized killer bee version of Vince and HHH.
Hope: Someone who doesn’t mind pushing new people of all sizes and shapes while not afraid to look foolish on screen.
Result: Someone who is about always looking important.

You know what made Mr. McMahon the greatest heel of all time? The fact that he got his comeuppance now and then. When’s the last time Stephanie got a beer bath in the middle of the ring or got a septic tank dumped on her from the entrance? I think the last time she got schooled was when Vickie Guerrero retired.

No mention of Foley trying to ban Chris Jericho from ringside for his own match? It is starting to get sad with him, when was the last time he made it through a promo without a major brain fart or Stephanie just interrupting him because he couldn’t get to his point? Go home, enjoy your family, quit bumming us out man.

Ahh, sad to see KO being slowly expunged from the title picture – in some ways, his involvement with Jericho has somewhat hurt the intensity of his character, and thus his reign. Still, the Jericho & KO fallout (regardless of how many times teased) should be fun.

Tremendous.
That aside, Steph is supposed to be the evil boss, what better way to display that than to show her taking credit for anything good, and flipping out because bad things are never her fault?
I get that the way they get this over is cheap, but they no longer do intergender matches, Steph can’t wrestle another woman to prove a point to one of the men, and they no longer do those old Steph/Jericho bits that were horrifically mysogonist.

Also, while I’d like to see Jericho get the one belt he somehow hadn’t already held before we wave goodbye for a year, I did like the kayfabe reasoning why the ref didn’t DQ Reigns. He didn’t actually see Reigns commit the foul, plus, Jericho still looks crafty by using that distraction by hit Reigns with his finisher.
That’s solid story-telling, everyone, even the ref, looks good.

“especially since the UK Championship show is about to happen and fill 205 quota of an hour a week of little dudes nobody in the WWE Universe cares about.”

If the audience doesn’t care, it’s the WWE’s fault in presentation, not the performers. Also little dudes? T-Bone is 245lbs.

There’s a reason Ciampa, Tommy End and Gallagher had their final date all at Progress, and it’s because the British scene is the best in the world right now. Some people are gonna’ be bias against them anyway, don’t make it harder on them dude.